Partners in Crime
by Scarletfern
Summary: Rich discovers that Patterson is planning to work straight through Christmas and he is having none of it. After all, a silly little thing like being on parole is no excuse to let his partner in cyber crime spend the holidays alone. Set in the 2 year time jump between seasons 2 & 3, after Patterson moves to Silicon Valley.


Patterson crept through her darkened living room, eyes fixed on the door. The time on the clock read 3:59 AM. She stealthily maneuvered around the large pile of boxes that she hadn't yet gotten around to unpacking. (She wasn't one hundred percent sure she was going to unpack them. This was her second apartment in California, as the first place hadn't felt like home, hadn't felt safe. This one hadn't exactly felt safe either.)

Her line of thought was interrupted by another series of loud knocks on the door.

Okay, it _definitely_ didn't feel safe now, given the fact that someone was apparently trying to break down the door at four in the fucking morning.

She adjusted her grip on the gun as she reached the door, her heart pounding in her throat. After looking through the peephole, she immediately dropped the gun on the table by the door, flicked the lights on, and flung the door open in annoyance.

"Rich, what the hell?"

"Hey, long time no see!"

"We literally just talked yesterday."

"Yeah, about the-"

She silenced him with a glare. "Did it ever occur to you that we shouldn't be seen together?"

"No?" He looked genuinely confused.

"Remember the super illegal hacker group we're a part of? The Three Blind Mice? Any of that ring a bell?" she whispered incredulously.

"Exactly. The _Three_ Blind Mice. We're just two completely normal, boring, law-abiding citizens. Nothing suspicious about that!" he chirped.

Patterson rolled her eyes. "That doesn't explain what you're doing here."

"Well, there's nothing like some good old face-to-face communication. Speaking of which, are you okay? You look tired. Have you been getting enough sleep?"

At her glare, he began to backtrack nervously. "Nevermind, I take it back. You look great!"

Patterson gritted her teeth. "It's four in the morning. Answer the question. What are you doing here?"

"You know how it goes. I was just perusing the interwebs, as one does, and I happened to run across your bank statement. I couldn't help but notice that you hadn't bought a plane ticket to come back to New York for the holidays," he spoke flippantly, as if he hadn't just admitted to a felony.

"Oh, you just _happened_ to run across my bank statement? So you're spying on me now?"

"'Spying' has such a negative connotation. I prefer the phrase 'checking on my favorite partner in crime.' So tell me. Why aren't you going home for Christmas?"

Taken aback, she spluttered incoherently for a full minute before managing a complete sentence. "I'm too busy. This app won't code itself."

"You're avoiding something."

"No, I'm not-"

"So you're just working yourself to death for fun? I thought you left the FBI because you needed a break."

She had no idea how to respond to _that_, but with Rich she didn't have time to make up an excuse, given the fact that he never stayed on a specific subject for very long.

"Are you going to let me in or not?"

She opened the door a little wider. "Fine. Hurry up before someone sees you."

"I knew you'd come around," he said with a delighted grin.

"I thought you were on parole," she grumbled, after closing the door and locking it.

Unperturbed, he waggled his eyebrows. "Speaking of which, you're about to get an angry phone call from either Reade or Madam Director Lady, so if you would please vouch for me that would be _excellent_. I would very much prefer to not go back to jail."

She just nodded in bewilderment, accepting the fact that she now had a temporary roommate wandering around her living room.

He shook his head sadly after taking stock of the room. "It's practically Christmas and you don't even have a tree yet. We're going to have to right this injustice immediately."

"It's four in the morning," she pointed out helplessly.

"Fine, we can wait a couple of hours. Now, _please_ tell me one of these boxes is full of decorations."

"Ummm…" She didn't really want to admit that she still hadn't unpacked, but it was kind of obvious.

"You know, at first I was kind of put out that you hadn't told me to make myself at home yet, but since it looks like you haven't even made yourself at home… I won't judge."

Before she could object, he waved a hand at himself dismissively and walked out of the room. "eh, no problem. We'll have an unpacking party before we start decorating."

She bit her lip and smiled to herself. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have some company...


End file.
